Seoul, South Korea –
North Korea showcased at a Friday night military parade a new hypersonic glide-vehicle system and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems during the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party of the country; images from the event, posted online by attendees, indicate this.
The Hwasong-11Ma hypersonic system and the Hwasong-20 rocket, which state-run media called the ‘most powerful nuclear strategic weapon,’ were added to the arsenal shown in the night parade on Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang.
State media in the country published textual reports early Saturday, but photos and videos of the event were expected in a later release that day.
The celebration came a month after leader Kim Jong Un visited Beijing for a major Chinese military parade, where he had a unique opportunity to stand alongside world political leaders – Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin – on the global stage.
Kim arrived with deepening strategic ties to China, a renewed friendship with his longtime patron in politics and economics, and a greater resolve to continue his missile-and-nuclear program.
Since then, state media have highlighted new or improved weapons systems – including the Hwasong-11Ma with a maneuverable hypersonic warhead and the Hwasong-20.
Key Details and Context
The Hwasong-11Ma first appeared at a Pyongyang military exhibition a week before the parade; the Hwasong-11 family of missiles is based on the Russian Iskander, which have been widely used in strikes against Ukraine.
The new system features a warhead housed in a boost-glide vehicle, i.e., a flat glide vehicle with wings, allowing the warhead to follow an unconventional trajectory to the target and complicating its detection and destruction by defense systems.
It is dubbed hypersonic due to the ability to maneuver at speeds of over five Mach; earlier tests of hypersonic glide vehicles have been ongoing since 2021, and in January 2024 the tests used a solid-fuel booster instead of a liquid-fuel engine.
Solid-fuel missiles are easier to transport and launch rapidly – within minutes – making them harder for defenses to counter. Russia has drawn on a similar approach with the air-launched Iskander – “Kinzhal” – during the war in Ukraine, although the U.S. CRS expresses skepticism about the real effectiveness of this model, as noted in the August report.
Following the appearance of the new Hwasong-20 – the first demonstration of North Korea’s latest ICBM – it is possible that what was seen at the parade was only the container for transporting the weapon on a multi-wheeled transporter; Pyongyang has not yet announced a flight test.
Earlier this year, North Korea said that a high-thrust engine for the rocket completed final testing. According to KCNA, a solid-fuel engine made of carbon fiber composites was tested nine times on the ground, and it is planned to be used on the Hwasong-19, which has already undergone flight tests and, according to experts, has a range sufficient to reach any point in the United States.
The parade also showcased North Korean service members who took part in fighting against Ukraine, helping push Kyiv’s forces from Russia’s Kursk region earlier this year.
Among the foreign guests at the parade was former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, who attended the event in Pyongyang.
This public display of weapons underscores Pyongyang’s ambitions to preserve the image of a technologically advanced country and to tighten pressure on the international community, while also raising concerns about potential tests and regional stability.